The Risen Jesus Breaks Through
Easter, John 20
Stonebrook Sunday AM, 4/5/26, Matt Heerema
Please turn with me to The Gospel of John, chapter 20.
This morning is Easter Sunday, the most important of all Christian holidays. Every Sunday Christians gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but today we take special focus on it. The reason Christians worship on Sunday instead of Saturday is precisely this: we worship on the Lord's Day, the day Jesus rose from the grave, rather than the Sabbath of the Old Covenant. The resurrection is the central message of Christianity, and it's what we're celebrating this morning.
To bring us up to speed, here’s what happened in the days leading up to this morning's passage. Jesus of Nazareth had spent three years teaching, healing, and claiming to be the Son of God, the long-prophesied savior of the world, the fulfillment of everything the Old Testament promised. Because of this, the religious leaders of his day wanted him dead. Friday, he was arrested, tried, and executed by crucifixion, just as the Old Testament Scriptures prophesied, and according to God’s plan to rescue his people from sin and death. He died in our place, paying a debt we owed but could not pay. His body was taken down and sealed in a tomb. By Saturday his followers were devastated and hiding.
Those of us who were at our Good Friday service Friday night left off at the end of John 19, with Jesus in the tomb.
And now it's Sunday morning. The third day. The day after the Sabbath. The disciples are despondent, confused, and afraid. The one who was supposed to conquer the Romans had instead been conquered by them. And we find several of the women among Jesus's followers going to visit the tomb.
Let's read.
INTRO: Jesus is not in the tomb!
John 20:1–2 (CSB)
1 On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
2 So she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!”
The women go to the tomb to pay their respects to their beloved rabbi, and what do they find? His body is gone!Importantly, their conclusion is not that he has risen from the dead. They didn’t understand that part of his teaching, or that part of the Old Testament. They have concluded that his body was stolen. This was the first and oldest refutation of the resurrection by the Jews of Jesus’s day, and it is soundly defeated in this chapter.
There is a lot going on in John chapter 20. This morning, I want to pull on just one of the threads we see. Today’s narrative points out three barriers the risen Jesus breaks through in human hearts to bring them to faith and salvation: The barrier of misunderstanding, the barrier of misperception, and the barrier of mistrust. And then it shows us how Jesus still breaks through these barriers today.
Barrier 1: Peter and John - Misunderstanding
John 20:3-10 (CSB)
3 At that, Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. 5 Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then, following him, Simon Peter also came. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. 7 The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself. 8 The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then also went in, saw, and believed. 9 For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to the place where they were staying.
Verse 4 is always a little funny to me. “The other disciple, the one Jesus loved” from verse 2 is how John refers to himself in the story. He’s writing this whole Gospel as an eyewitness.
One fun little eyewitness detail: he outran Peter to the tomb. I’m sure Peter loved having the results of the footrace published for the rest of history to read.
What I’d like to emphasize from this scene is that verse 9 says that Peter and John did not understand the Scripture (or Jesus’s plain teaching to them) that he was going to rise from the dead. The gospels make it clear that even Jesus’s closest followers didn’t have a category for a Messiah who would die. Only one who would be victorious and conquer. But here they see some evidence that he didn’t stay dead. They didn’t understand it all. But John believed something was going on.
John believed, imperfectly, but that’s the way it is with all of us, isn’t it? We know from Luke’s account that Peter was still trying to puzzle through things.
Maybe that's you this morning. You've heard the Christian message. You've been around it. Maybe you grew up in church. But it hasn't clicked yet. The pieces are there but they haven't come together into something you can actually believe. Peter and John had all the evidence right in front of them and still went home confused.
They still need Jesus to open their hearts and minds more fully on the road to Emmaus.
Even with their imperfect understanding of the Old Testament Scripture and their misunderstanding of Jesus’s teachings, Jesus’s resurrection breaks through, shows them that Jesus is more than they assumed, and ignites faith in their hearts.
Barrier 2: Mary - Misperception
John 20:11–18 (CSB)
11 But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’s body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “Because they’ve taken away my Lord,” she told them, “and I don’t know where they’ve put him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus.
15 “Woman,” Jesus said to her, “why are you crying? Who is it that you’re seeking?” Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you’ve carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him, and I will take him away.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” Turning around, she said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”—which means “Teacher.” 17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus told her, “since I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what he had said to her.
Here we see Mary, one who the rest of the story shows as worshipping Jesus with her whole heart, all her life, all her resources, giving up everything to follow him, even she is misperceiving the situation.
It seems she was focusing too much on the circumstances right in front of her.She doesn’t seem to recognize Jesus. Perhaps tear-filled eyes blurred her vision. Perhaps because of her wrong expectations. She had already decided that Jesus was dead, and someone had carried him off, so whoever was speaking to her now couldn’t possibly be him. She, like the rest of the disciples, didn’t understand the prophecies or Jesus’s teaching about his death and resurrection, and so she misperceives what is right in front of her.
Maybe you can relate. Your circumstances have so dominated your vision that you can't see past them. A loss you're carrying. A situation that has you convinced that God is absent or that hope is gone. Mary was standing three feet from the risen Jesus and couldn't see him. Her grief had narrowed her whole world down to one conclusion: he's gone.
And then Jesus, with a simple and tender word, speaks her name. “Mary.” The familiar way he always had for the past three years. John 10:3-4, “The good shepherd calls his sheep by name, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” And the barrier of her misperception is broken down by a single word.
She calls him “Rabbi” - the old familiar relationship is back! But again, she is misperceiving the situation. But he says, no, things have changed now. We’re not going back to how things were; something much greater is coming. The resurrection changes everything about how his followers relate to him. He's no longer the traveling teacher. He's the risen Lord, ascending to the Father to reign over all creation, and sending his Spirit to empower His people for His mission.
Jesus tells her, “Don’t stay here clinging to me, I have a mission for you. Go and tell the others.” And she does.
Bonus Barrier: The Disciples - A locked door
And so we come to a “bonus barrier.” Jesus breaks through the actual physical barrier of a locked door.
John 20:19–23 (CSB)
19 When it was evening on that first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because they feared the Jews. Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 Having said this, he showed them his hands and his side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” 22 After saying this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
I’ve always wondered if, as he said, “peace be with you,” Jesus was smiling a little. Can you imagine being huddled inside a building with the doors locked because you were afraid of persecution, and then suddenly someone you watched die and be buried shows up in the middle of the room? That would be a pretty startling moment.
Jesus is sending them out with the most important message in the world. Preach the gospel. Where it's believed, sins are forgiven. Where it's rejected, sins remain.
By the way, most pastors and scholars through the ages have agreed that we should probably understand “the disciples” here as the 12. Minus Judas, so 11, and also minus one other: Thomas. We go to him next.
Barrier 3: Thomas - Mistrust
John 20:24–29 (CSB)
24 But Thomas (called “Twin”), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were telling him, “We’ve seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in his hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be faithless, but believe.” 28 Thomas responded to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
In Acts 5, we learn that in 1st-century Judea, Messianic hopes were high, and there had been several recent impostors who had raised expectations, but they were killed by the Romans and their movements were scattered. Thomas had likely seen this play out before and may have been feeling “here we go again.” “Doubting Thomas”’s issue was mistrust, probably born of being burned before.
Maybe you're like Thomas. You've heard the story. People you respect believe it. But you need it to be real for you, on your terms, before you'll commit. You've been burned before, maybe by the church, maybe by life, and you’re not going to get burned again.
Even though Thomas is the farthest away of all the disciples, in faith, and in physical distance, and in time from hearing about Jesus, his faith travels the farthest and climbs the highest, and he has the most complete confession of all of them: “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus, in his mercy, condescends to Thomas’s request, awakening faith and worship. And then the loving chastisement: “You are blessed because you saw. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” John records Jesus’s words for us to hear, and they provide the transition to John’s climactic point of the whole gospel. Why did he write the book? He wrote it so that we could hear the message, and believe it, and have life in his name.
Epilogue: How Jesus still breaks through
John 20:30–31 (CSB)
30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
There are so many things that John, the eyewitness, saw Jesus do. Other eyewitnesses to Jesus and his work and teaching also recorded much of what they saw and what they learned. This is how we got the New Testament.
And amazingly, John says, it is through their eyewitness account, the testimony of those who saw what Jesus did, that God uses to bring about faith in the hearers. It is the Holy Spirit working through the proclamation of the Scriptures that breaks through our barriers.
We don’t have the opportunity to go inspect the tomb and see the burial linens. That’s okay! Even for the ones who did, it wasn’t enough to help them understand and believe. They needed their hearts and minds opened by Jesus.
We don’t have the opportunity, as sweet as it would be, to have Jesus audibly speak our name while standing right next to us. That’s okay! It helped Mary, but she didn’t fully understand everything.
We don’t have the opportunity to physically touch Jesus’s wounds and scars like Thomas did! That’s okay! Jesus tells us that we’re blessed when we believe without that. John teaches us that what we need is to hear John, Peter, Mary, and Thomas’s stories. The eyewitness accounts are what Jesus has chosen for us to hear.
As we read and hear the eyewitness testimony in the Scripture, the Spirit works in our heart, and the Word corrects our misunderstandings, clarifies our misperceptions, and disarms our mistrust.
Jesus is still in the business of breaking through every barrier to call his lost sheep home. And he is doing this through the proclamation of His Word in the scriptures. And that is why the Scriptures are so central in Christian worship. It’s why we spend so much time with the Bible, and why we urge each other to know it and understand it. Because, as verse 31 says, these things were written so that we may believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and did what he says he did, and that by believing we have life.
I hope you’ll join us this year as we find Gospel Hope in God’s Word together as God’s Family. If you’re able, come back next week. We’re continuing our walk through the book of 1st Corinthians.
Pray with me.
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